Dark Tides
by Nanoman94
Summary: (Sequel to Dragonend) It was once that start of the journey for three unlikely heroes of Skyrim, united under one cause: to kill Alduin, the World-Eater. Now, when the dark tide stems from the horizon, and all hope seems lost, can they prevail alone? No, probably not... Rated T for violence, gore, character death, and sexual humor.
1. Echoes

~Echoes~

_15__th__ of First Seed  
2:34 am  
The Raw Fade  
Sortiara_

The Fade. A realm of ethereal magic, and the realm of dreams for mortals. Every living being who sleeps enters the Fade to do so, the dreams but fantasies invented by demons to entertain mortal souls. For in doing so, the Demons grow in strength, and eventually attempt to leave the Fade by possessing a host body. Most of the lower-class demons, such as those of Hunger, Wrath, or Envy, end up in already dead forms and create Draugr and Skeletons.

However, more powerful demons, like those of Sloth and Greed, need a greater form to take over, one that is living. An animal would suffice for these Demons. However, those of Desire (second only to those of Pride) require a sentient mind to cross over. And that is where magi come in.

Those who are proficient in the magical arts stay conscious within the Fade. Like myself, we wander the land of magic, trying not to attract the attention of powerful demons who would enthrall our bodies and minds. Unfortunately for me, I found myself on a small island of the Fade, unable to feel my real body. An extremely powerful Demon had possessed me, and I had to fight it off.

However, I lacked much in the Fade. What I had were simple robes, shoes, and my wit. Food and water are nonexistent in the Fade, and one does not require them, but the pain of hunger still gnawed at me. The small island in the middle of the empty space had nothing on it, save for an enchanted chain the was attached to a collar of magic around my neck, which signified that a demon had taken my real body.

My mind went back to that spirit in the cave. What sort of Demon was that? It had to be one of Desire or Pride; they're the only ones strong enough to make a specter in real life. As of to answer, I sensed a presence behind me. Turning around, the Demon behind me was a hulking mass of dark, inky blackness, with pearly-white fangs and four glowing, red eyes. **"Greetings, my lovely mage. Good to see you awake at last."**

It was odd to hear a demon talk like that; he seemed gentle, kind even. But that's how they trick mortals. "I know you're only giving me courtesy to try to swoon me out of my body permanently. I won't fall for that." I replied.

**"I knew you wouldn't." **The demon said, **"I am showing courtesy befitting my status as a Demon Lord." **His form bowed. **"My name is Destruction, and I must say, you are the only one of my thralls competent enough to even **_**be **_**possessed. That is worthy of respect."**

"Good to know even the demons respect me." I said. I knew I had to fight this monster alone. Dyce and Owain couldn't save me this time; non-magical beings like themselves wouldn't be able to be awake in this realm. "Tell me, though. Why chain me to a rock? Why not enchant a fantasy for me to blissfully live in?"

**"I knew you would break out of it. But, maybe you're right; I should be more hospitable to my body's former owner. I'll give you a fantasy, but the chain stays." **He snapped his fingers, and the world melted away, only to be replaced with the library at the College of Winterhold. I cracked open several books, only to find out that they were all actually the stock from the place. Instantly, I knew he had made a fatal flaw.

He put me in a library.

~Several hours later~

I finally found the volume that I sought. It was a reference guide to the Planes of Oblivion. I also distinctly remember one certain Daedric Prince owing us for helping him. Cautiously, I reached out with my magic to the Shivering Isles, trying to latch on to its signature magical aura. Destruction may have been able to take over my body, but his flaw was a lack of planning and thought.

Most demons believe that once they capture a mage's body, the mage is forever trapped in the Fade. However, if I were to separate fully from my body, I could move my spirit almost anywhere- the only exception being the real world. In doing so, the demon gains full and complete control over the body, and it would be almost impossible to get it back. Then again, it already is, so I've not much to lose, don't I?

I initiated the spell, a slight *pop* sound emanating from nowhere. A flash of my purple aura engulfed me, and when it subsided, I found myself in a small antechamber. There was one door in the room, behind a desk. A metronome and a book rested on the desk, and behind it sat a balding man, who looked in his forties. "Greetings, young lady." The man said. "I must say, I am surprised you managed to get here. The doorway is closed."

"I teleported my soul here. I'm here to see Sheogorath." I replied.

"The master had recently arrived back home from his imprisonment, indeed." The man said. "He's in the Shivering Isles proper, behind the door. But I'm afraid you can't enter."

"Why not?"I replied. I sat down in the chair opposite him.

"The master has forbidden-" At that moment, Sheogorath himself stepped forward from the door.

"Now, who in their wrong mind- Oh! You're that young lass from the other month!" the mad god said. "What can I do for you? After you informed that Erika lass of her husband, the poor sod felt 'happy that she was' and passed on, letting me escape!"

I proceeded to tell Sheogorath about my current plight. After doing so, he snapped his fingers, conjuring up another chair and sitting in it. "Lass, I can't begin to tell you how deep in trouble you are. Please tell me you didn't say the Demon's name was 'Destruction'." He was oddly serious.

"It was… why, is he powerful?" I asked. It was unlike Sheogorath to be scared. His face visibly paled, and sweat formed on his brow.

"Lass… Destruction is the second most powerful demon who has ever lived. Or one of the four who could claim that. And, well, since the Demon King is dead, I would venture and say he is one of the four most powerful demons currently in existence. To say his power rivals mine would be an insult. To him."

"My lord…" The attendant said. "You don't mean to say…"

"Lass, I'm sorry, but I'm just not strong enough to fight him. Not on my own, anyway." Sheogorath stood up. "And unfortunately, I don't know how to do it other than by fighting him." He thought for a second. "But I think I know who does."

"Who? Who would have the power needed to fight him?" I asked.

"You may think we Daedra are evil, and while Dagon and Molag Probably are, we're not." A snap of his fingers created a small platter of cheeses to float next to him. After taking a bite, he continued. "And even those two don't truly want the world to end; they simply want to control it. Come with me, lass. Let's go talk to gods."

~End of Segment~

_Three hours earlier  
Dragonsreach  
Koray_

"My prince," a messenger said, grabbing my attention. "A letter from your father." He handed me a small slip of paper, then went on to the rest of his duties.

_Dear Koray,_

_I also rejoice in the victory over Whiterun. The newly appointed Jarl has also exceeded my expectations. I want you to take a small division of the Avon Stormwings and travel to Cloudridge. Convince the Jarl of Cloudridge, Alistar, to join our cause by peaceful means. Only fight if you must._

_Your father,  
Ulfric_

Nodding to myself, I traveled to the Stormwing encampment outside the city. In the largest tent stood Galmor and two of his generals, discussing strategy. "Greetings, Galmor."

"My prince, I must apologize, but strategy must come first." He said.

"I've come on my father's direct orders. I need twenty Avon soldiers to follow me on a diplomatic mission." Galmor looked at me strangely, thinking I must have broken something. Instead, I showed him my father's letter. Scanning over it, he seemed confused.

"Cloudridge? I've never heard of that town." Galmor said.

"Of course you haven't." I replied. "It's an Avon city." More confusion from him. "Avons have more secrets than they let on, Galmor. And even the most weak-minded of them keep those under steel locks in their minds. I require twenty Avon soldiers."

"I don't know for sure about this… but this is Ulfric's seal, so I guess it's legitimate. Take the fourth squadron; they should be in their tents right now." Galmor gestured towards a group of tents that had a unique symbol on them in addition to the normal Stormwing one. The intricate design of feathers and a beak told me that this was the Fourth Squadron, the best fliers in the entire army.

"Greetings, men." I said as I approached. Their uniforms were more streamlined than the usual tunics, and none of them carried heavy weapons; small swords, crossbows, and wingblades were their weapons of choice. "You have been assigned to my command, and we leave before the hour is up."

The commander of the Fourth Squadron walked up to me. Standing several heads over me, he's easily the tallest Avon I've ever seen. His carefully preened feathers were a bright crimson, and his eyes were ice-blue. "Where are we going, my prince?" He asked.

When I told them the answer, several of them cheered. "Cloudridge."

~End of Segment~

_Daybreak, same day  
The Ruins of Dawnstar  
Owain_

I was roused from my sleep by Dyce, who had a skeptical look on his face. Shrugging, too tired to crack a joke, I went to wake up Edgar, but Dyce simply shook his head and motioned for me to follow. Slipping on a pair of pants, I did just that. He led me into the room of the half-destroyed inn that we had Scarecrow resting. "She's waking up. Now's a good time to get answers from her." Dyce said.

"Alright, let's talk to her. I was hoping to woo her on my own, but having a wingman, figuratively speaking, is just as good." We walked into the room, to see Scarecrow awake in her bed. Her bow was propped against the wall next to her, but she was obviously too injured to fight. "Hello, welcome back to the land of the living."

"How long was I out?" She asked, her voice sounding less like the low gruff she pretended to have.

"About a day." Dyce said. His own sword was belted to his hip, and he looked ready to draw it. "I just have a few questions for you, that's all."

"Ask away." Scarecrow said. "I'm not in any position to refuse anything, right?" Oh, you can be in quite a few positions, Scarecrow… if you're willing.

"What happened to Sortiara?" Dyce asked. "She's been asleep longer than you have now. She also started attacking me in those tunnels…"

"She was taken over by a demon. I've seen it happen before." Scarecrow said. "Her real soul isn't in that body."

"How do we get her soul back, then?" I asked immediately. "Holy water? An exorcist? Sacrifice something in the name of Celina?"

"You need to get her body to the College of Winterhold. The Archmage would know what to do here." Scarecrow said.

"Alright," Dyce said. "Next question: why did you hide your identity? What's your real name?"

Scarecrow laughed. "Funny story, that. I don't remember my real name, and I wear that cloak because it's what I woke up in- while nailed to a stake in the ground in the middle of a field, the farmers thinking my 'corpse' would make a good Scarecrow. So that's what I named myself."

Dyce and I simply looked at one another. "Last one," I said, aiming to find out something. "Why do you look so much like Sortiara?"

She simply shrugged. "Oblivion if I know. All I do know is that something inside me's telling me to join up with her, help her. And so, that's what I'll do. You two can trust me; you have my bow for your future endeavors, Dragonend."

Dyce indicated that he'd like to check up on Sortiara, so I hadn't bothered him. Slipping the rest of my armor on and grabbing my mace, I went out of the inn to find more supplies, to see if anything in the wreckage could be useful. Hey, if I found several heads of fresh cabbage in Bleak Falls Barrow, I'm pretty sure there's _something _edible here.

As I sifted through the wreckage, I heard a cry from outside the village. Curious, I poked my head around a corner, only to see a nord man, heavily wounded, running for his life from some extremely grotesque creature. The creature was humanoid, with rusty bronze armor strapped to its pale hide. The monster had no hair, and its mouth was in an unnatural jagged grin.

"HELP!" The man screamed, having no weapons of his own. I instantly jumped to action, swinging my mace at the monster's head. It ducked, and kept running after the man. I watched in horror as the monster cast aside its weapon, sinking its teeth into the man's flesh.

The nord screamed out in pain, and he foamed at the mouth before falling lifelessly to the ground. The monster simply retrieved its weapon, a sharp, jagged length of metal that could barely pass for a sword, and turned its gaze to me. I knew I didn't want that thing getting close to me, and so I pelted it with wingblades.

The first two were blocked by the creature, but my third landed home in its neck. Black blood pooled out of the wound and its mouth, and the creature seemed to laugh as it died. When it finally stopped bleeding, it fell down next to the man it killed. I felt something behind me, a sense of danger. Turning, I saw a horde of the same kind of creature, accompanied by Avon-like ones. I ran towards the inn.

"DYCE! WE HAVE A PROBLEM!"

~End of Chapter~


	2. Power of Music

_~The Power of Music~_

_15__th__ of First Seed  
5:12 pm  
The Ruins of Dawnstar  
Dyce_

"Dyce, we have a problem!" I heard Owain shouting. I was busy tending to Sortiara's unconscious form, while Edgar gave the recovering Scarecrow medicine. She was up and about now, able to move, but I doubt she could fight. Sighing to myself, I grabbed my sword, belted the scabbard to my waist, and headed out. Owain was running at full speed, his wings trailing behind him.

Behind him, on the ridge, was a small army of monsters. Each one of them was a grotesque abomination of flesh, with rusted armor and sharp fangs. Some of them had wings, and were flying this way. "I can see the problem, Owain!" I cried out, drawing my blade. There were about thirty monsters, and I knew we had to fight; we couldn't move Sortiara and Scarecrow in the short amount of time we had.

"Don't let them bite you!" Owain said, drawing his mace and spinning around quickly. "I saw one bite a poor nord. He foamed at the mouth and died in less than a minute!" he readied his stance for battle.

"I'll keep that in mind." I said back. We charged the army, and I let out a powerful _"Fus Ro Dah!" _to scatter some of them. I could see three different kinds of monsters present here- there were ones that looked like humans, ones that resembled Avons, and then small, hunched-over ones that liked to stay out of open conflict and try to sneak hits in.

Owain battled the group of airborne monsters, leaving me to deal with the ground assailants. _"Yol!" _I shouted quickly, setting quite a few of them on fire, the monsters dropping their weapons and screaming as the flames took them. Owain was strategically striking enemies so that they would fall on top of others, knocking them out of the fight, even if for only a few seconds.

I made progress in hacking away at the monsters, felling half of them with Owain's help. However, it was then we had to go more on the defensive. When the last airborne _thing _fell, drowning in a pool of its black blood, the rest stepped back a few feet as a bloodcurdling roar made itself known. Behind the monsters rose another- which happened to be taller than Owain and I combined. Its diseased skin was a dark purple, and two large, curved horns rode from its skull. It wore no armor, save for a leather loin cloth and giant, spiked steel gauntlets.

"Dyce," Owain asked. "What the _hell _is that thing?" My friend hovered in the air next to me, and I couldn't answer him. The monsters cheered as the lumbering beast made its way to us, stepping aside to let us challenge it. It roared in our faces, flinging spittle and mucus as foul as its breath. It slammed the ground when it finished, awaiting our acceptance of its challenge.

"Owain, stand back. It's obvious this thing wants a fair fight." I said. He went to protest, but then I snipped back, "If we don't fight this thing one-on-one, the rest will join combat and probably storm the inn!" That got him to back off. The monsters formed a circle around the giant and I, negating any sort of escape as Owain hovered overhead.

The beast roared again, slamming its fist where I once stood. I had rolled to its left, slicing its knee with my blade. It seemed unfazed at the wound, merely roaring again as it tried to swipe at me another time. _"Fus Ro Dah!" _I yelled, but to no effect; the shockwave of pure Dragon Force merely dissipated around it. The monsters in the circle cheered in their guttural language when the beast struck me with a backhanded swipe, flinging me across the small arena.

The wound wasn't too serious, but the puncture one of the spikes made was deep in my stomach. Blood was pooling out of me, and I had no choice but to pause combat for a second to chug down a potion of healing. The wound stopped bleeding, but stayed visible in all its goriness. Frantically thinking, I spotted a dead body of the monsters, one of Owain's wingblades lodged in its head. Before the monstrous beast could harm me, I had grabbed the cool metal in my offhand and wielded it as a dagger.

"Hyaa!" I screamed as a battle cry, jumping onto the beast's chest. I sunk both my weapons into it, as the monster roared in pain. Quickly, I pulled the wingblade out and used it to climb higher on the beast, as did my sword after I stabbed the other blade back in. I kicked off the monster when I got to its head, knocking it off balance onto its back.

As swiftly as my crazy idea worked, it failed. The monster got up faster than I had anticipated, and grabbed me with its massive hand. It simply squeezed, causing blood to rush out of my already-numerous wounds. I felt faint. That was, until a feathered friend flew down at astonishingly fast speeds with his mace.

"Hey, ugly!" Owain screeched, as he swung his mace. The second it made contact with the side of the monster's head, he yelled out "Bonk!" with surprising confidence. The titan fell as he dropped me, and Owain landed to help me up.

"What did you just…" I started to ask, already chugging down another healing potion.

"Grass grows, Avons fly, the sun shines, and Dyce," He said in a serious tone, "I hurt people." The monsters, now enraged that he broke the trust of the duel, fought us all at once again. The large one got back up, even after suffering the nasty blow to the head, and charged us again.

"It's been nice knowing you, Owain." I said. I could barely lift my sword, let alone fight. And I knew Owain couldn't fight them off. I closed my eyes, bracing for the worst, when the cold metal of enemy weapons didn't come. What did was a powerful sound, a drumbeat to be precise, that echoed around us.

"I know we don't quite agree on land," I heard a voice say, "But it did look like you could use a hand." Looking around, I saw the bodies of the monsters trying to get back up from the blast, and behind us was a Khajiit, draped in brown robes and holding a large drum in one hand. His fur, though, was a combination of black and white I knew all too well.

"Xenos?" I asked.

"Indeed, it has been a while, hasn't it, my friends? Now, move out of the way, and let me deal these creatures their ends." He spoke in his usual way. Not complaining, Owain took this as the chance to drag me away from the battle, and as much as I liked causing my foes pain, I was glad to be alive.

Xenos struck his drum once more, sending a beat that echoed throughout the area, and the monsters seemed to feel pain from it. He struck the musical instrument in a rhythm that I guessed wasn't made up on the spot, and the ground broke under the monsters' feet, sending spikes of stone into their bodies.

It was then that he put the drum into his Bag of Holding, and drew out his lute. The string instrument's melodies were different than before. With a few notes, Xenos's body glowed for a second, and then he played it faster, adding more notes as an electric force built up on the strings. With one final note, the lightning erupted from the end of the lute, zapping the nearest monster and chaining to most of the others.

All of them fell to the flurry of musical attacks, even the big one. More lightning strikes, and more quakes from the drum, were more than enough to fell the beasts. Taking note of this, Xenos bowed to the fallen enemies. "Thank you, thank y one and all! But, I'm afraid you all had to fall." He intoned, trying to get the dead monsters to cheer for his musical performance.

"What… the _fuck_… was that?" Owain asked for both of us. Xenos simply laughed as he pulled out a third musical instrument- a flute.

"I am glad you asked, dear Owain, for I am known by many things in this day and age. Although it tends to get in the way of any fame, I am known by many as both bard and Sonomage." He bowed to us, then immediately started to play the flute. A slow, soothing melody escaped it and entered my ears, and I felt rejuvenated from listening to it. When the song ended, I felt stronger- to my surprise, my wounds had all but disappeared!

"Xenos, could you play that again, for our friend?" I asked. After a nod from the bard, we reentered the inn, approaching Scarecrow's room. She was still asleep, but Xenos still played for us- we saw her wounds closing as the enchanted melody played. "So, how come your music didn't do this the last few times we met?" I asked.

"A question as to why you did not receive that boon? It is simply because I must play a specific tune." The bard said. "As for why I am here, of great treasure from a good friend did I hear. Little did I know I'd be spying you good folk, as I made my way from valleys and forests of oak."

"Xenos." I said seriously. "I know you're not the type to stay with us, and I know you always tend to show up when we need you…" I found this hard to ask somehow. "But… could you join us for the time being? We need the help."

Owain added on, "As much as I don't have a thing for Khajiit, or bards, I agree here. We need help, Xenos. Could you give us some?"

The cat thought for a second. A smile broke out on his lips. "A Warrior, a flier, a mage; a child, an archer, and me, all on the same page…" He stood up. "I will help Dragonend with your plight!"

"Thanks, Xenos, you're a lifesaver…" I sighed in relief.

"But only if you permanently add me to your might." He added on, completing his rhyme. Owain looked at me for a split second.

"You want… to join Dragonend?" he asked. Xenos nodded. "Well, we are a real guild now, I guess…"

"I don't see the harm in it." I answered, holding out a hand for Xenos to shake. "Welcome to the team."

~End of Chapter~


End file.
